AN ABRUPT DROWNING OF THE BLACK-SEA SHELF

During latest Quaternary glaciation, the Black Sea became a giant fres hwater lake. The surface of this lake drew down to levels more than 10 0 m below its outlet. When the Mediterranean rose to the Bosporus sill at 7,150 yr BP1, saltwater poured through this spillway to refill the lake and submerge, catastrophically, more than 100,000 km(2) of its e xposed continental shelf. The permanent drowning of a vast terrestrial landscape may possibly have accelerated the dispersal of early neolit hic foragers and farmers into the interior of Europe at that time. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.